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Flight MH17 victims symbolize tragedy

A day after a Malaysian jetliner was shot down over Ukraine, the lives and stories of the 298 passengers who lost their lives are slowly emerging in The Algemeen Dagblad newspaper has spoken to "Kevin". His

Flight MH17 victims symbolize tragedy

Families and small communities around the world pay tribute to the 298 people on board the Malaysian jet, which crashed in eastern Ukraine. Sarah Toms reports.
Video provided by Reuters
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People gather during a candle-light vigil for the victims of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, at a shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur on July 18, 2014. A Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 carrying 298 people from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed on July 17 in rebel-held east Ukraine, as Kiev said the jet was shot down in a 'terrorist' attack.(Photo: NICOLAS ASFOURI AFP/Getty Images)

The identities and lives of the 298 passengers killed on the Malaysia Airlines jetliner shot down over Ukraine on Thursday are slowly emerging in heart-aching detail, turning them from collateral damage on a debris-strewn field into individuals with families, passions and promising futures.

There are the Maslins - Otis, 8, Evie, 10, and Mo, 12 - who were traveling with their granddad, Nick Norris, on their way home to Australia from a family vacation. The children's parents stayed behind in Amsterdam to take a later flight.

There was the sole American on board, a business school student living in Amsterdam, Quinn Lucas Schansman, who had dual citizenship in the United States and the Netherlands.

There was the up-and-coming chemist, Karlijn Keijzer, a graduate student from the Netherlands studying at Indiana University, who was working on developing an anti-cancer drug that could also stop the progression of Alzheimer's disease.

There was the Malaysian actress, Shuba Jaya, who was returning to Malaysia with her husband, Paul Goes, and their 2-year-old-daughter, Kaela, after a visit to her in-laws in the Netherlands.

The stories of the dead go on as loved ones keep them in their hearts, not for the horror that marked their final moments when their plane turned into a fireball in the sky, but for the traits that made them special.

In towns and cities across Europe, Australia and Malaysia, friends and relatives posted tributes on social media and shared their grief in makeshift memorials to the dead. In some cases, entire families traveling on vacation were killed.

No where is the grief more palpable than in the Netherlands, a country of 16 million, where two-thirds of the 298 passengers and crew were Dutch. The dead there include a Dutch activist, a senator, florist and his wife and the director of an online news site for expats who was going on vacation with his wife and two small sons.

Among the victims:

Quinn Lucas Schansman's Facebook photo at the time of his death on Malaysia Flight MH17.(Photo: Facebook screengrab)

Schansman was on his way to meet family members vacationing in Malaysia. The young man, lean and athletic, was doing what he loved: traveling. A profile on Instragram shows photos of Schansman with his younger brother, visiting spots across the globe, including Malta, and hamming it up with friends.

Thoughts and prayers go out to all families of Malaysia flight victims including family of Quinn Lucas Schansman, a dual Dutch-U.S. citizen.

Schansman loved soccer and was an ardent fan of the team Ajax, according to a Facebook page profile that appears to belong to him. He played for a local soccer club, Olympia '25, which paid tribute to him on their official website. Schansman moved to Amsterdam in April, where he studied at the International Business School at Hogeschool van Amsterdam, according to the Facebook profile.

A woman who appears to be his girlfriend posted a photo of the couple kissing with more than a dozen notes of condolences.

Karlijn Keijzer, 25, of Amsterdam was a doctoral student in chemistry at Indiana University who was on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 when it crashed July 17, 2014, in Ukraine.(Photo: Mike Dickbernd, Indiana University)

Keijzer, 25, had taken a short vacation from her doctoral studies in chemistry at Indiana to visit home in Almelo, Netherlands, about 90 miles east of Amsterdam. Her research focused on improving human health, said Mu-Hyun Balik, her doctoral adviser.

"The last piece of research work she completed before heading out to catch her flight to her short summer vacation was preparing a computer simulation on bryostatin, an anti-cancer drug and a promising drug candidate for treating Alzheimer's disease," he said in a statement.

"She inspired us all with her optimism about how science will make Earth a better place."

The promising chemist was also a talented athlete who was a member of the university's women's rowing team during the 2011 season.

Malaysian actress Shuba Jaya was returning to Malaysia with her husband, Paul Goes, and their 2-year-old-daughter, Kaela, after a visit to her in-laws in the Netherlands. Shuba, 38, acted in local TV shows such as Spanar Jaya, Gadis 3 and Sugamana Sumaigal. She performed on stage in Fourplay, Charley's Auntie and Hungry for Hope.

Malaysian actress Shuba Jaya, husband Paul Goes, of the Netherlands, and their daughter Kaela were on MH17.(Photo: Facebook screengrab)

Marsha Maung, 41, a freelance writer, met Shuba five years ago at a charity drive for the Burmese refugee community who lived in Pudu, Kuala Lumpur, and the two stayed friends.

"I vividly remember the first day I met Shuba. She was so kind-hearted and generous. She donated money and food items for the charity drive."

"More than what she had donated, it was Shuba's personality that captured my heart," she said.

"She stayed around to ask if I needed help transporting the goodies and food. She wanted to know what car I drove and if it could fit all the stuff and offered to lend her car," Marsha said, her voice trailing off with emotion.

"She was a go-getter," said Marsha. "She was so bubbly and fun and always worked towards what she wanted in life. She was good with juggling two tedious jobs - that of a mother and actress. And she did it so well, so beautifully."

"She had a perfect life - a husband she loved and a beautiful daughter. The last pictures she posted on Facebook were those of her daughter's. I will miss her."

Another Dutch passenger, Kevin Jesurun, 43, also had deep ties to the United States. He graduated from Palmer Trinity, a high school in Miami, in 1990 and attended college at Mercer University in Georgia. After college, he waited tables at Applebee's.

Kevin Jesurun while traveling.(Photo: Uncredited)

Elena De Villiers taught him geometry at Palmer, a co-ed private college prep school in Miami.

"He was a very happy-go-lucky young man," De Villiers said. He participated in the school's drama program where he demonstrated comic and dramatic skills, she said.

"Kevin could always make me and everyone smile and laugh out loud," De Villiers said.

His Facebook page, where friends have now written condolences and tributes noting his sense of humor and his honorable nature, indicated he worked at Hugo Boss and lived in Willemstad, Curacao, but was born in Aruba. A soccer fan, he spent the first weeks of July enthralled in World Cup madness. A photo in a Curacao newspaper shows him wrapped in the Dutch flag.

His resume, posted on Skillpages, says he spoke Dutch, English, Spanish and Portuguese fluently. He was learning Tagalog because he planned to live in the Philippines, says Monique Diaz of Orlando, who had known Jesurun since their elementary school days on Curacao.

After his father died a few years ago, he took some of the money he received in an inheritance to travel the world, she said. He documented his travels with a series of selfies, Diaz said.

"He was very outgoing. He had a lot of friends. He knew everyone and everyone knew him. He was always a happy person," Diaz recalls. "He really, truly lived a good life. We all loved him very much."

Jesurun and his mother had traveled to Amsterdam where his sister lives for his niece's graduation, Diaz said.

While his mother traveled back to the island, Jesurun set out for a new job at a call center in the Philippines that some friends there had lined up for him, says another friend Kenrick Augusta, an accountant in Boynton Beach, Fla. His flight was to take him first to Kuala Lumpur, then to Singapore and finally to Manila.

"He had a dream. He wanted to explore many countries," Augusta said.

Augusta last spoke to him on Saturday, when he joked about going on Malaysia Air and the flight disappearing.

"But he was so excited to go," Augusta said. "He started planning this trip in January."

It was a fun family holiday to Amsterdam for the Norris family. Australian businessman Nick Norris, from Perth, had taken his daughter, Rin and her husband, Anthony Maslin, and their three children on vacation.

Nick Norris was on his way home with his three grandchildren, Mo, Evie and Otis, according to the Perth Now news site, when the plane went down. The parents had decided to stay a few more days in Amsterdam. Now, the family is mourning four lives lost.

"Beautiful, beautiful kids, just gentle clever beautiful kids," said Norris' daughter Natalia Gemmell and the children's aunt. Nick Norris, a yachtsman, was an Army man, the headmaster of a school and an education consultant, Gemmell said.

"My father was in the army. My father was in wars, for him to be shot down in a war that wasn't his..." she said.

"To lose three beautiful children in a war that isn't theirs, it's different....anything that leads to innocent children being shot out of the sky is not where we should be heading."

The four were among 27 Australians.

One of the most heart-wrenching stories to come from the crash is the story of the Australian family who lost a son and daughter-in-law in the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, only to lose another relative and her husband in the latest tragedy. Kaylene Mann's brother Rod Burrows and sister-in-law Mary Burrows were on Flight 370. On Thursday, Mann learned her stepdaughter, Maree Rizk, and her husband, Albert, of Melbourne, were on Flight 17.

Others on the plane were on a mission to save lives. A group of prominent researchers and activists were on the plane heading to the 20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, where former President Clinton was scheduled to speak.

Joep Lange, a Dutch AIDS researcher, specialized in HIV treatment in Asia and Africa, said officials with the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales in Australia.

"Joep had an absolute commitment to HIV treatment and care in Asia and Africa," Professor David A. Cooper said in a statement. "The joy in collaborating with Joep was that he would always bring a fresh view, a unique take on things, and he never accepted that something was impossible to achieve. Our joint work in Bangkok, the HIVNAT centre, will stand as his legacy."

Others included Lange's colleague, Jacqueline van Tongeren, and World Health Organization spokesman Glenn Thomas, who was based in Geneva.

And still others were traveling on the doomed jetliner to cheer on their beloved soccer club. Two of the nine British victims, John Alder and Liam Sweeney, were headed to New Zealand to watch Newcastle United on a pre-season tour, reported the Daily Mail.

The duo were passionate about the team. Alder was nicknamed "The Undertaker" because he always wore a black suit and white shirt to the games.

A statement by the club remembers the two men as familiar faces in every Newcastle United away game.

"John was a lifelong supporter and a familiar sight in the stands for almost half-a-century, having barely missed a single game in that time," said the statement. "Liam will be known to many fans during his time volunteering as a steward on supporters' buses to away games.'